


The Birds and the Bees

by captainflintsjacket



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Jim injury, animal injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-29 22:57:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20443961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainflintsjacket/pseuds/captainflintsjacket
Summary: You find and rescue an injured bird. It turns out, he doesn't like Jim very much.





	The Birds and the Bees

“Are you out of your goddamn mind?” The ensign in front of you flinched away from your voice, rising like the red in your cheeks as you puffed yourself up. “This is an entirely unknown species - an avian species, no less - and your first instinct is to shoot it?! Why don’t you give me that blaster and we’ll see how you like being shot you piece of-

“Woah, woah slow down,” Jim said with a chuckle, grabbing your hands before you could lunge for the ensign’s blaster. “It’s just a bird.”

You snatched your hands back. “Just a…just a bird? We’re the ones invading its territory. Ensign Jessup had no right to shoot it. Just a bird. God that’s like saying my bed is just a bed.”

“Okay, I get it I’m sorry, but what do you want me to do? It’s against policy to bring unknown creatures onto the ship.”

“It’s also against policy to bang your lead zoologist and yet here we are.”

Jim blinked quickly, trying to come up with an adequate argument, but gave up almost as soon as he’d started. Whatever trouble he’d get in for bringing the bird on board was nothing compared to the trouble you’d give him. He raised his hands up in surrender: “Fine, but the bird is your responsibility. If it gets out or mauls an ensign it’s on you.”

“My hero,” you said sarcastically before grabbing your backpack. You dumped the contents on the ground, hoping it would work as a makeshift carrier for the time being.

The bird squawked in fear as you approached, attempting to fly away. It lifted itself an inch off the ground before tumbling back down, scattering iridescent blue feathers and green blood across the ground. You took the opportunity to throw the bag over it and scoop it up, zipping the bag shut. The bird struggled in the bag as you shouted for Scotty to beam you back up.

After much coaxing, you convinced the bird to come out of the backpack in your office. Jim had brought a few pieces of fauna from the planet in hopes he’d win back some of your favor and even agreed to postpone leaving a few days so the “botanists can continue studying the planet’s surface.” At least that’s what he’d said. You knew he was trying to give you time to patch up the bird.

Kovas, as you’d taken to calling him, healed like a champ. He healed nearly three times as fast as birds on earth and, with the added help of the osteo and dermal regenerators, Kovas was happily walking around your lab. His wing wasn’t healed enough for sustained flight, but he managed to flap them around enough to make a mess of your lab. While you thought it was cute, your coworkers disagreed, counting down the minutes until Jim asked you to let the bird go.

With a heavy heart and much arguing, you finally agreed, beaming down to the planet with Kovas perched on your shoulder, nibbling on your hair. You kissed the top of his head. His feathers felt coarse and firm. Almost like catfish spines. He nuzzled his beak against the underside of your chin and you felt a pang of grief as you raised your other arm for him to hop onto. Kovas did happily, allowing you to set him back onto the ground.

“Be good out there, Kovas, okay?” He tilted his head at your voice. You cleared your throat as you stood, trying to ease the tightness growing there. It was stupid to get so worked up over a bird you’d only known a couple days and yet still knew next to nothing about, but here you were.

Jim sensed your distress and took a step towards you, brushing his fingers against yours. You smiled weakly at him and nodded. Your sign that you were ready to go before you changed your mind. Jim made the call to Scotty and you felt the all too familiar sensation of the transporter picking you up. You waved one last time at Kovas.

As the gold light wrapped around you, you heard a terrible sound. Harsh and grating and filled with sadness. It morphed as you listened, twisting into what almost sounded like the word “No.” Then you felt a sharp impact to your chest, sending you staggering back as your feet finally touched back down on the Enterprise. Your arms went up instinctively, cradling your chest and the weight against it. Kovas stretched his beak up against your chin again, spreading his good wing out around your arm.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jim said.

After attempting to let Kovas loose on the planet surface three more times (including once when Jim went by himself and came back with his hair ruffled, shirt in tatters, and Kovas clinging to his arm like a bat) Jim finally agreed to let him stay on the ship for “scientific study.” You and Kovas hardly left the lab after that, eager to learn everything you could about each other.

The first thing you noticed was his diet. Kovas was mostly carnivorous, preferring to nibble at pieces of chicken or fish than the oats and seeds you’d offered him. Another interesting discovery about his eating practices was his beak. Initially it seemed to be very similar to a cockatoo’s beak, but as soon as Kovas ate you saw it was also hinged in the middle of the bottom jaw, allowing him to open his mouth in three parts. Needless to say, you nearly fell out of your chair the first time you’d seen it.

The second thing you noticed was that he seemed to be nocturnal. It was a difficult transition at first. The days on Kovas’s home planet were longer than days on the Enterprise, but you did your best to help him adjust, spending most of your nights with Kovas in the lab to ensure he settled in. It was during one of these sleepovers that Kovas finally spoke. Well, kind of spoke. It sounded more like a child learning a new word, but it excited you all the same.

Kovas’s vocabulary quickly grew from a few single syllable words into patchwork sentences. He was even able to call your name when he wanted attention. You encouraged him excitedly, pushing his vocabulary and his motor skills. He could open boxes and play with toys - his favorite was a stuffed mouse on a string.

“He’s so amazing,” you explained to Jim over breakfast. “Every day I learn something new about him. God I can’t wait to see how he reacts to birds on Earth. They look the same physically - I mean, Kovas is much bigger obviously - but they’ve got some really similar mannerisms and-” Jim cut you off by standing up abruptly and skulking out of the mess hall. You stared after him, words still hanging off your tongue, and looked at Bones for an explanation. He shrugged and dove back into his breakfast.

You were in your lab with Kovas going through some flight exercises to help his wing heal when the door opened behind you. Jim hovered there, more unsure of himself than you’d seen him in awhile. He fidgeted with the sleeves of his uniform shirt as he stepped in and focused his gaze on Kovas instead of you.

“Hey, babe,” you said as you stood from your chair, pressing a kiss to Jim’s cheek. He tensed lightly under your touch and you pulled away worried. “What’s wrong?” You tried to run your hand through Jim’s hair the way you knew he liked, but he took a step back from you. Your heart sunk.

“I haven’t seen you in days.” His voice was barely a whisper, eyes still focused on Kovas as if Jim didn’t want him to hear.

You laughed. “What are you talking about? We saw each other at breakfast.”

“And all you did was talk about this stupid bird.” 

“He’s not stupid,” you snapped back. “Kovas is surprisingly intelligent and has shown an aptitude for-”

“This is what I’m talking about,” Jim interrupted again. “We never see each other anymore and when we do you’re always going on about this bird. I’m glad you’re happy. I’m glad you’re advancing your career, but I miss you.”

“I’m right here, Jim.”

“But you’re not.” Jim turned away from you, running his hands through his hair. “You know it was our anniversary yesterday? I cooked dinner.” You sighed, checking your watch to confirm the date. It couldn’t have possibly been your anniversary already. That was supposed to be weeks away.

“James…I am so sorry. I don’t know what happened. I just….I just lost track of time. I-I had a gift for you and everything. It was gonna be so romantic. God, I’m such a mess.” You ran your hands down your face, noticing for the first time how tired you felt. You could remember the last time you’d slept a full night period, let alone a full night in a bed.

“I have a gift for you, too.” Jim looked down as he fished around the pockets of his uniform pants. Whatever he pulled out, he kept closed tightly in a fist as he looked back up at you. “Our feathery friend aside, these past couple years have been the happiest of my life. I’ve been trying to come up with ways to show you how thankful I am, but I couldn’t get Bones to agree to starting a flash mob on one of the observation decks, so hopefully this will do.” Jim cleared his throat to keep his voice from shaking and slowly sank to the ground. Your heart leapt to your throat. “I thought exploring space was the greatest adventure, but it’s nothing compared to loving you. I want to spend the rest of my life waking up with you and having water balloon fights in the hallways and giving Bones’ gray hairs. You with me?” Jim opened his hand to reveal a ring that glittered under the fluorescent lab lights, and you couldn’t help but let out a squeal of excitement.

Nothing about this moment was how you’d pictured it. You thought Jim would propose over dinner. That you’d be in something nicer than a pair of old scrubs and a lab coat. He’d get down on one knee looking up at you with the same lopsided grin you fell in love with. Then, he’d stand and you’d pour all your love into that next kiss to let him know you felt it too. That he was safe with you and you were safe with him. You certainly didn’t expect to hear Kovas screeching as he lunged at Jim.

“Baby,” Kovas yelled, talons out, already tearing at Jim’s yellow shirt. “Don’t hurt my baby girl.” You sprang into action. Jim was on the ground, covering his head with his hands as Kovas snapped and tore at skin and clothing alike. 

You sprang into action and pulled Kovas off Jim as quickly as you could. He flapped against your clutches, eager to sink teeth and talons back into Jim as he chanted “jealous Jim” in something eerily similar to your own voice. You hissed at him to stop but he continued taunting Jim like a child on the playground.

“Get to Medbay,” you implored Jim. “I’ll join you in a second.” Jim slinked out the door, eyes never leaving Kovas. As soon as the doors to your lab slid closed, you let him go. Kovas danced around the floor chirping happily.

“Man who hurt you is gone. You’re safe now.”

You crossed your arms and squeezed your eyes shut, reminding yourself that, despite his superior intelligence, Kovas was still just a bird - a young one at that. “Jim was not hurting me.” You said it as simply as you could to avoid any confusion.

“No,” Kovas responded shrilly. “Jim always want to take you away. Jim make you yell. Jealous Jim.”

“Jim doesn’t want to hurt me,” you said, kneeling on the floor in front of Kovas. He was so big know you could almost meet his eyes at this height. “Jim wants to take care of me like I took care of you.”

Kovas cocked his head to the side, puzzled. “But who takes care of Kovas?”

You reached a hand out to stroke his cheek and he pushed his face against your hand, chirping happily. “You can take care of yourself. You’re old enough. Don’t you miss being around others like you? Your family?”

“You are family.”

“Jim is family,” you countered softly. Kovas looked away from you and hung his head, suddenly interested in preening the feathers on his wing. He seemed to understand the error in his thinking now.

“Kovas is sorry. Sorry to Jim.”

“Do you want to tell him?” Kovas bobbed his head eagerly and you couldn’t help but smile, letting him jump on your shoulder even though he was getting too big for it.

Jim’s heart rate spiked on the biobed as you and Kovas entered. You’d only seen this kind of fear in his eyes a few times and never expected you would have anything to do it. You felt a pang of guilt for bringing Kovas on board, following by an even greater pang of guilt for wishing you hadn’t, especially when Kovas so clearly needed you. It was a difficult situation to be in, but it was clear you’d come to the climax: let Kovas go or lose Jim.

Thankfully, Kovas made it easy. He jumped from your shoulder onto Jim’s bed. His large wingspan made Bones recoil and Jim sink further into the bed. Kovas took a few steps forward, lowering his head and tucking his wings back.

“Kovas is sorry, Captain.” His voice was low and serious, hanging in the air with such sorrow that you wanted to take him in your arms again. “Kovas only wanted to protect, babygirl.”

“That’s not her name,” Jim snapped.

You stepped forward and put a hand on his forearm. “It’s what you call me. He thinks it’s my name.” Jim rolled his eyes. Kovas started his apologies again.

“Kovas knows Jim is a nice Captain. A good captain. He is smart, kind, and has a good ass.” His voice took on a lilt like yours again as he continued and you covered your face with your hands, ears turning red. “Jim will take care of baby girl for Kovas, and Kovas will return home.”

Jim eyed Kovas warily, finally relaxing. “Can’t argue with that.”

And so you found yourself yet again on the surface of Kovas’s home planet, knees against the lush Earth and arms clutching the feathered body in front of you. You wanted to remember every aspect of him from the hard feel of his feathers to the faint metallic smell they gave off. Kovas nipped at your hair, wanting to remember as deeply.

“I’ll miss you,” you whispered. It took every ounce of your concentration to keep from crying.

Kovas bumped his beak against your nose but turned away when he heard a bird call like his own. He called out to match it, spreading his giant wings and taking off while leaving you kneeling in the dirt behind him. You watched Kovas disappear into the trees before you finally stood.

Jim stepped towards you, one arm in a sling and the other going around your waist. He kissed the side of your head and nuzzled his nose against your ear. “I’m sorry you had to let him go.”

You shrugged. “I’m not. He has is family. I have mine.” You looked to Jim and he smiled.

“Your fine ass family.”

“Shut up,” you laughed, pushing him lightly.

“Ow,” Jim winced playfully, cradling his arm against his chest. You rolled your eyes. “What? You’re not gonna kiss it better?”

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr @trade-baby-blues. Also, “Kovas” is the Baltic god of war, which I thought was a fitting name for the bird!


End file.
